Two suitors are bidding for the team, according to the Bergen Record. One is the ownership group of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers, led by Joshua Harris. The other is a group led by Philadelphia-based attorney Andrew Barroway. The club will remain in Newark.

News of the imminent sale came shortly after Forbes reported Thursday morning the league would likely fund and operate the franchise if a buyer wasn’t found by next month.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman described the report as “inaccurate.”

The Devils are $230 million in debt and owner Jeff Vanderbeek missed the first payment on a recently restructured loan, according to Forbes. The team’s debt payment is supposed to be about $15 million per year.

The Devils are in so deep that last year the NHL provided the club advance payment on future national revenue streams, such as TV contracts.

SCHEDULE RELEASED

The NHL will open its pre-season slate on Sept. 14 and will host 13 games at venues outside the league’s 30 NHL arenas.

The Washington Capitals and Winnipeg Jets will open the pre-season in Belleville, Ont., after nearby town Stirling-Rawdon claimed Kraft Hockeyville’s top prize.

The New York Rangers might start the 2013-14 season without its captain in the lineup.

Ryan Callahan is back skating but could miss up to the first month of NHL action, according to a Thursday report from New York Daily News.

Callahan, a 5-foot-11, 185-pound winger, had surgery this summer to repair a torn labrum. He began skating last week.

The 28-year-old has served as the Rangers’ captain since September 2011.

He put up 16 goals and 31 points in 45 games last year – a total which put him on pace to set a career high in both categories over an 82-game season.

VOICE RETIRES

A Hockey Hall of Fame broadcaster is a mere three seasons away from hanging up his microphone for good.

Buffalo Sabres play-by-play man Rick Jeanneret will retire following the 2015-16 NHL season, the club announced Thursday.

Jeanneret, a 71-year-old from St. Catharines, Ont., who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2012, has called Sabres games for the past 41 years.

“RJ is a hall-of-fame talent and we are thrilled that he will be with us for three more years as he winds down his prolific career,” Buffalo president Ted Black said in a statement.

The Sabres’ new play-by-play announcer has already been named.

Dan Dunleavy, a former long-time Sportsnet broadcaster, will take over to start the 2016-17 season.

Jeanneret is best known for his hysterical “May Day! May Day!” call following a 1993 playoff goal in overtime off the stick of Sabres tough guy Brad May.

BRIEFLY

Free agent Winnipeg Jets forward Nikolai Antropov has signed a two-year contract to play with Astana Barys of the Kontinental Hockey League. The 33-year-old Russian recently completed a four-year, $16.25 million deal he agreed to with the Atlanta Thrashers in 2009 … New York Rangers assistant general manager Jeff Gorton offered up the team’s stance on negotiations with goalie Henrik Lundqvist Thursday. “Henrik wants to be here and we want Henrik,” Gorton told the Bergen Record. “At the end of the day it shouldn’t be too difficult to get a deal done” …